Bahaism and Its Claims Part 5

"Our aim is to free religion from dogmas. Dogmas are the cause of strife. We must give up dogmas." Now it is evident that Bahaism has not a fixed body of doctrines: that it has not a definite and clear system of theology. But it is very dogmatic in the common usages of that word.

Webster defines it as (1) positive, authoritative, and (2) as a.s.serting or disposed to a.s.sert with authority or with overbearing and arrogance.

Is not Bahaism a ma.s.s of a.s.sertions? For example, Baha declares that "the universe hath neither beginning nor ending." Abdul Baha adds the comment:[129] "_By this simple statement_ he has set aside elaborate theories and exhaustive labours of scientists and philosophers."

Similarly he is said to have settled by a single word all discussions about divine sovereignty and free agency. Abdul Baha might be called the Lord of dogmas, for from his dicta none must vary by a hair's breadth.

Remey himself dogmatizes as follows: "The religion of Baha is the cause of G.o.d, outside of which there is no truth in the world." Much in Bahaism must be taken on faith, without logical proof. Professor Browne[130] puts it mildly when he says: "The system appears to me to contain enough of the mysterious and the transcendental to make its intellectual acceptance at least as difficult as the theology of most Christian churches to the sceptic." Elsewhere he says:[131] "It must be clearly understood that Babism (or Bahaism) is in no sense lat.i.tudinarian or eclectic, and stands therefore in the sharpest antagonism to Sufism. However vague Babi doctrine may be on certain points, it is essentially _dogmatic_, and every utterance or command uttered by the Manifestation of the Period, _i. e._, Bab or Baha Ullah or Abbas Effendi must be accepted without reserve."[132] Similarly Dr.

G. W. Holmes[133] writes: "Baha's appeal is only to his own word and to his own arbitrary and forced interpretation of the Word of G.o.d, which interpretations, as he states, find their sanction solely in his own authority."

There are other claims of Bahaism of a specific nature which might be considered. They would be found equally a.s.sertive and equally groundless. Bahaism reminds me of a horse which was offered for sale in Persia. It appeared like a fat and well fed animal. But the would-be purchaser was warned that its skin had been puffed up with air which would soon leak out, and he would have on his hands a lean, lank, bony _yabi_ scrub. Bahaism does not even stop short of claiming that the civilization of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is due to it. Its braggart att.i.tude may be fittingly symbolized by Rostand's "Chanticler,"

standing in the barnyard, flapping its wings in vain exultation, imagining that it, by its crowing, has caused the sun to rise.

FOOTNOTES:

[91] "The Bahai Movement," p. 73.

[92] _Contemporary Review_, March, 1912.

[93] In "Unity Through Love."

[94] "The Bahai Movement," p. 39.

[95] _Ibid._, p. 27.

[96] _S. W._, Oct. 1912, p. 190.

[97] "Story of the Bahai Movement," p. 4.

[98] June 29, 1912.

[99] _S. W._, Sept. 27, 1912.

[100] _S. W._, Sept. 8, 1912.

[101] Professor Browne, in the Ency. of Ethics and Religion, article "Bab," writes: "The Bahais are strongly antagonistic alike to the Sufis and the Mohammedans, but for quite different reasons. In the case of the Sufis they object to their lat.i.tudinarianism, their Pantheism, their individualism and their doctrine of the inner light. With the Mohammedan they resent the persecutions they have suffered. The Bahais detest the Azalis, the followers of Abbas Effendi dislike and despise the followers of his brother Mehemet Ali."

[102] _S. W._, Aug. 20, 1914.

[103] "Brilliant Proof," pp. 26-28.

[104] _S. W._, Nov. 23, 1913, p. 238.

[105] _S. W._, April 9, 1914.

[106] _S. W._, July 13, 1913, p. 122.

[107] "The Universal Religion."

[108] "Bahai Movement," p. 75.

[109] Page 54. In Dealy's "Dawn of Knowledge," the chapter on Baha Ullah is ent.i.tled "Prince of Peace."

[110] _S. W._, Vol. IV, pp. 6, 8 and 254.

[111] "Answered Questions," p. 74; "Tablet of the World," p. 28.

[112] "Trav.'s Narr.," p. 287.

[113] "New Hist.," pp. 378, 379.

[114] _Ibid._, p. 380.

[115] "Trav.'s Narr.," pp. 65-67.

[116] See Chapter VI.

[117] "A Message from Acca," p. 9.

[118] Tablet "9," p. 8, published by the New York Bahai Council.

[119] "Principles of the Bahai Movement," pp. 43, 47, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1912.

[120] _Ibid._, pp. 43, 45.

[121] "International Arbitrations," pp. 4826-4833.

[122] New International Ency., Art. "Arbitration," p. 713.

[123] _Atlantic Monthly_, Vol. XCIV, p. 358.

[124] _S. W._, March 21, 1914, p. 8.

[125] Dealy's "Dawn of Knowledge," p. 44; Kheiralla's "Beha Ullah," pp.

480, 483.

[126] Tract "Peace," pp. 8 and 14; "Bahai Movement," p. 89.

[127] "The Universal Religion," pp. 21, 44.

[128] _S. W._, April 28, 1913, p. 55.

[129] _S. W._, June 5, 1913, p. 90.

[130] Phelps, p. xviii.

[131] Ency. of Religion and Ethics, Art. "Bab."

[132] See also his "Literary History of Persia," p. 422.

[133] "Missions and Modern History," by Robert E. Speer, p. 171.